John Santos Doc and Live Performances; SF JAZZ brings on the Afro-Latin Sound and more!

Santos Skin To Skin, the documentary on the prolific percussionist, bandleader, educator and cultural activist John Santos will be shown at the Mill Valley Film Festival and at the SF JAZZ Center in October. The SF JAZZ screening on Sunday, October 30th which is followed by a live concert by the John Santos Sextet is close to being sold out. You can try to get the remaining tickets at The SF JAZZ web site= www.sfjazz.org. Information regarding the remaining 3 screenings at the Mill Valley Film Festival which also includes the premiere screening followed by a live performance of John Santos and Friends at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley on Saturday, October 8th are available now at the festival’s web site www.mvff.org. The film will also be screened on Friday, October 14 at 7:30 pm at the Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) in Berkeley and Sunday, Oct. 16 at 4 pm at the Roxie Cinema in SF.

SF JAZZ is also featuring the special concert by Santos bandmate, the multi talented flautist and multi-instrumentalist Dr. John Calloway and the Flute Odyssey this evening, October 16 at 7pm and 8:30 pm at the Joe Henderson Lab at the SF Jazz Center, 201 Franklin Street, SF. The group features Calloway on flute, 5 key Cuban wooden flute and bass flute, long time member Miguelito Martinez on flute and various indigenous flutes as well as newcomers Chloë Scott Jones on flute and alto flute, Erika Oba on flute and Japanese bamboo shinobue, and special guest Karl Young on shakuhachi.

SF JAZZ is also presenting Cuban piano virtuoso Chucho Valdes and his latest project La Creación with an Yoruban Orchestra and the Monkestra with music directors Hilario Duran and John Beasley next Thursday, Sept. 22, 8 pm at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre. Chucho will be my special guest on Con Sabor, Sat. Oct. 17 on KPFA 94.1 FM in the first hour of the program. And if that wasn’t enough, Cuba’s swinging big band Orquesta Akokan fronted by the charismatic vocalist Pepito Gomez will be at the SF JAZZ center on Sunday, September 25th at 7 PM.